The most widespread myth on Earth is that of the Deluge. Currently, there are over 500 deluge legends known worldwide. After researching 86 of them, German geographer and cartographer Richard Andree concluded that 62 are completely independent of Mesopotamian and Hebrew sources. This means that there is a great chance that such an event occurred at some point in human history.
The most well-known deluge legend is that of the Old Testament. In chapter 6 of the Book of Genesis, the supreme god decided to destroy mankind due to its wickedness. He decided to save only one family, whose head was Noah, „a just man and perfect in his generations„. Yahweh taught him how to build an ark of acacia wood, 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. Then he commanded him to take with him not only his wife, sons and daughters-in-law, but also a pair of every animal species. A week before the catastrophe, the god changed his mind and asked Noah to take seven pairs of clean animals and one pair of unclean ones. Chapter 7 states that „In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights” (7:11-12). After the rain stopped, the water continued to rise for 150 days, killing all living creatures on the Earth. Chapter 8 tells us that „the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried” (4-14). Then Yahweh commanded Noah to leave the ark and release the animals. After fulfilling the orders, Noah sacrificed some animals in honor of his god, who was pleased with the scent of the sacrifices and decided to never again destroy humanity. Furthermore, in chapter 9, he set the rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant between him and the humans. The Quran, the holy book of Muslims, confirms the biblical story of the Deluge.
The Book of Enoch provides additional details about the Deluge, although often contradictory. In chapter 10, the supreme god Elah sends the archangel Uriel to inform Noah of the approaching Deluge and teach him how to survive. Chapters 54 and 89 assert that Enoch knew of the coming Deluge, receiving this information through a vision. In chapter 65, he is the one who reveals to Noah the cataclysm that will come because of the teachings humans received from the Watchers. In chapter 67, „the word of Elah” informed Noah that he would survive an imminent disaster, without specifying what it was, but mentioning that the angels are the ones building the saving ark: „And now the angels are making a wooden (building), and when they have completed that task I will place my hand upon it and preserve it, and there shall come forth from it the seed of life, and a change shall set in so that the earth will not remain without inhabitant„.
The Deluge is also mentioned in other biblical books, which state that the giants, the children of angels and earthly women, died in that cataclysm: „You destroyed those who in the past committed injustice, among whom were even giants who trusted in their strength and boldness, whom you destroyed by bringing upon them a boundless flood” (3 Maccabees 2:4 – canonical only for the Orthodox Churches), „For of old, when the proud giants were being destroyed, the hope of the universe, who took refuge on a raft, left to the world a future for the human family, under the guidance of your hand” (The Book of Wisdom 14:6 – noncanonical for Jews and Protestants, but accepted into the Orthodox and Catholic canon). The same is claimed by the Apocalypse of Baruch, which give us even the exact number of drowned giants: 4,090,000. However, the Book of Enoch disagrees with this hypothesis, stating that it was not the Deluge that destroyed the giants, but the archangel Gabriel, who made them kill each other. The biblical account does not specify anything about the fate of the giants and fallen angels, but the official version of the Abrahamic religions is that the giants were destroyed by the global flood.
It is assumed that the biblical legend was inspired from the Mesopotamian one, as the Jews had access to it during their Babylonian exile. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, dating back to the 3rd millennium BC, god Enlil demanded in the Council of the Gods the destruction of mankind, being disturbed by their noise. Therefore, the gods approved the destruction of the humans by a flood. God Ea / Enki did not agree with this decision and taught King Utnapishtim („He who found life”) to build a boat in which to take „the seed of all living creatures„. Utnapishtim built the boat in the shape of a cube according to the measurements given by the god (length and width of 120 cubits, with seven superimposed decks) and embarked his relatives, all kinds of animals and many craftsmen. When the storm began, the gods were scared and withdrew to the sky. „For six days and nights, the wind blew, the deluge, the storm and the flood overwhelmed the world and chaos and torrents raged together like armies in battle„, the epic claims. The boat landed on the top of Mount Nisir and Utnapishtim released a dove and a swallow that returned, having nowhere to settle. In the end, he also released a raven „which saw that the waters had receded, ate, flew around, croaked and did not return„. Utnapishtim descended from the boat and offered sacrifices to the gods. „When the gods smelled the sweet savor, they gathered like flies around the offering place„. Enlil realized that he had made a mistake and promised not to try to destroy mankind again, and Utnapishtim and his wife received immortality as a reward.
However, this is not the only Mesopotamian myth that preserves the story of the Deluge. In the Akkadian Atra-Hasis Epic, Enlil is upset by the multiplication of humans and asks the Council of the Gods to decimate mankind through epidemics and famine. Enki does not agree with this decision and teaches mortals to rebel against the gods. Then he sends „water warriors” with food for the starving people. Enlil convenes the Council of the Gods again and demands that mankind be destroyed by a flood. Like in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enki chooses a mortal whom he teaches to build a boat. The hero of Shuruppak, called Atra-Hasis („The Very Wise”) here, saves himself and his family. After the waters recede, he offers sacrifices to the starving gods, who pounce on the meat like eagles. In the version of the Babylonian priest Berossus, the god Cronus revealed to the mortal Ziusudra (Xisuthros in ancient Greek) that a deluge would occur on the fifteenth day of the month of Daisos (the second month of the year) and ordered him to gather all the writings he could find in the city of Sippar, and then to leave for Armenia.
In addition to these texts, there are other Mesopotamian references to the global flood. The Sumerian King List divides the rulers of the Earth in two parts: those who reigned before and those who reigned after the Deluge. Ashurbanipal, the 7th century BC king of Assyria, who collected an impressive library of clay tablets, boasted in a commemorative inscription that he was able to read „inscriptions on stone from before the Deluge„. An Akkadian text about names and their origins praises a king as being „of the seed preserved from before the Deluge„. Some scientific texts claim that their sources are „the old inscriptions, of the sages from before the Deluge„. And another one, about the Sumerian king Ur-Ninurta, recalls the same global catastrophe:
„On that day, on that long-ago day,
On that night, in that long-ago night,
On that year, in that long-ago year,
When the Deluge happened.„
Hitat, a collection of texts by Coptic chroniclers compiled by Muhammad Al Makrizi in the 15th century AD, contains many references to the global flood. Chronicler Al Haukali wrote that the pyramids of Giza were built as a defense against the Deluge. In the chapter Traces Left from Past Centuries by Al-Beruni, the Persians believed that the Deluge did not occur throughout the world, but only in Syria and part of the West, during the time of Tahmuras (the third king of the world, according to the poem Shahnameh). Chapter 33 of Hitat states that the god Hermes Trismegistus read in the stars about the coming of the Deluge, so he ordered the construction of pyramids in which treasures, writings of scholars and everything that needed to be saved from disappearance were hidden. A funerary text found in the tomb of Pharaoh Seti I speaks of the destruction of sinful mankind by a deluge. Also, the scholar Ibrahim B. Wasif Sah al-Katib wrote in News About Egypt and its Wonders that King Saurid had a dream in which „the Earth turned upside down with its inhabitants, frightened, people ran in all directions, stars fell and collided with each other, making a deafening noise„. The king did not tell anyone about his dream, but after a few days he had a similar one. Then he summoned all 130 of his seers and told them both dreams. Their interpretation was that an important event was coming to the world: the Deluge would come and after that a turmoil, descended from the constellation of Leo, to pass the world through fire. Hearing these things, Saurid decided to build the pyramids at Giza. „In the pyramids and in their roofs, in the walls and columns, all the secret sciences of the Egyptians were incorporated, the constellations were drawn on them (…) in addition to the science of talismans, arithmetic and geometry (…) clear to those who knew how to write them„.
In the ancient Greek legends, the Titan Prometheus, creator of humans, had a son with an earthling woman. The boy, named Deucalion, ruled over the land of Phthia in Thessaly and married Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus (Prometheus’ brother) and Pandora (the first woman). When Zeus decided to destroy the world by a flood, Deucalion, warned by his father, built a wooden chest in which he stored „all necessary things” and climbed inside it with Pyrrha. Only a few people who had fled to the tops of the highest mountains survived. Deucalion and Pyrrha drifted on the water for nine days and nine nights, eventually landing on Mount Parnassus, where they made offerings to the gods. Delighted with the offerings, Zeus allowed Deucalion to ask for anything he wanted. Since Deucalion wished for new humans, Zeus taught him to pick up stones from the ground and throw them over his shoulder. The stones thrown by Deucalion became men, and those thrown by Pyrrha became women.
A Norwegian myth, recorded in New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, also speaks of the Deluge: „All the rivers, all the seas swelled and overflowed. Everywhere, waves clashed against waves. They rose and slowly boiled over everything. The earth sank beneath the sea level„. Only two people survived the disaster, locked inside the Yggdrasil tree, which supported the Universe. Of course, they were the ancestors of the new generation of humans.
The Celtic book Lebor Gabala Erenn („The Book of the Taking of Ireland”) from the 12th century also mentions a great flood. In Ireland, the only survivors of the Deluge were the Fomorians, half-human and half-animal creatures. Only 53 people (3 men and 50 women) survived worldwide. The men divided the women among themselves: Fintan mac Bochra took Cessair and 16 other women, Bith, Cessair’s father, chose Bairrfhind and another 16 women, and the helmsman Ladra was left with the remaining 16. Fintan is said to have lived for another 5,500 years after the Deluge.
In India, while performing his ablutions one day, sage Manu found a little fish in the palm of his hand that begged him to spare its life. Feeling pity, Manu put the fish in a jar. The next day the fish had grown so large that the sage had to throw it into a lake. Soon, the lake became too small, and the fish, who was actually a manifestation of the god Vishnu, asked to be thrown into the sea. Then he warned Manu that a flood was coming. He sent him a huge ship, with the command to load it with a pair of animals from each species and seeds from each plant, and then to board it himself. Soon, the waters of the ocean swelled and swallowed everything. Vishnu, transformed into a huge fish with golden scales and a horn on his forehead, pulled the ship to the top of the „Mountain of the North„. After the waters receded, Manu disembarked from the ship. A year later, a woman, who claimed to be „Manu’s daughter„, emerged from the waters. The two married and had many children, thus becoming the ancestors of the current human race.
The ancient Jesuit scholars who were among the first European visitors to China had the opportunity to study in the Imperial Library a work composed of 4,320 volumes, which was said to have been inherited from ancient times. This enormous book included a number of traditions that related the consequences mankind had to endure when it rebelled against the great gods and order was transformed into disorder: „The planets changed their trajectories. The sky lowered towards the north. The Sun, Moon and stars changed their movements. The Earth broke into pieces and its waters rushed violently upwards and flooded the land„. According to Gustav Schlegel in Uranographie Chinoise (1875), it was believed in China that ten epochs, called „kis„, passed from the beginning of time to Confucius. At the end of each such epoch, „in a general convulsion of nature, the sea leaves its bed, mountains burst forth from the earth, rivers change their courses, human beings and all other things are destroyed and the old traces are erased„.
The Chewong people of Malaysia believe that their own world, which they call Earth Seven, turns upside down from time to time, so that everything is flooded and destroyed. However, through the intervention of the creator god Tohan, the new flat surface, which used to be the underside of Earth Seven, is shaped into mountains, valleys and plains. New trees are planted and new people are born.
A flood myth from Laos and northern Thailand claims that long ago, in the kingdom above, there lived beings called „then„. The masters of the Underworld were three distinguished men: Pu Leng Seung, Khun K’an and Khun K’et. One day, the celestial „then” announced that before each meal, people must give them a portion of their food as a sign of respect. The people refused and then, furious, the „then” caused a deluge that devastated the entire world. The three masters of the Underworld built a raft, on which they built a small house, and embarked on it together with several women and children. This way, they and their descendants survived.
Sir James George Frazer wrote in Folklore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law (1918) that the Karen indigenous people of Burma have traditions about a global deluge from which only two brothers escaped on a raft.
In Vietnamese mythology, a brother and sister survived the deluge in a large wooden chest, which contained a pair of every animal species.
According to New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology, the Tupinamba people of Brazil say that Monan („Old Man” or „Ancestor”) created mankind and then destroyed it with fire and floods. The Akakor Chronicle, told by Tatunca Nara (the chief of the Brazilian Ugha-Mangulala, Dacea and Baioha tribes) and written by Karl Brugger in 1976, speaks of a deluge that occurred in 14,386 BC, accompanied by a climate reversal.
Egerton Sykes notes in Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology (1961) that there are some Japanese traditions which suggest that the islands of Oceania were formed after the waters of a great flood receded. A myth of the Hawaiians tells how the world was destroyed by a deluge and then remade by the god Tangaloa. Also, the Samoans believe that there was once a deluge which destroyed nearly all of mankind, with only two human beings surviving in a boat, eventually arriving in the Samoan archipelago.
According to the book World Mythology (1990), several Aboriginal tribes in Australia, particularly those whose traditional territories lie along the tropical north coast, trace their origins to a great deluge which swept away the landscape and society that existed before. In the creation myths of many other tribes, the cosmic serpent Yurlunggur is responsible for the Deluge.
An African myth from the lower course of the Congo River states that „long ago, the Sun met the Moon and threw mud at her, which made her less bright. When this meeting happened, there was a great flood„.
The sacred book of the Mayans, Popol Vuh, states that shortly after the beginning of time, god Heart of Heaven created the first beings, „wooden figures who looked like humans and spoke like humans„. Because these creatures „did not remembered their creator„, the god decided to destroy them with a deluge. „From the sky came a heavy resin (…) the face of the earth darkened and a black rain began to fall (…) The wooden figures were overwhelmed, destroyed, crushed and killed„. Only one couple survived, „The Great Father and The Great Mother„, who populated the Earth, becoming the ancestors of all subsequent generations. In another version, collected by Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson in Maya History and Religion (1970), „the destruction came in the form of a torrential rain and a deluge. The mountains disappeared and people were transformed into fish (…) two human beings survived because one of the gods commanded them to hollow out a cavity in the trunk of a very large tree and take refuge there, at the fall of the heavens. The two entered and were saved. Their offspring repopulated the world„.
The Incas also preserved memories of a great flood. In Natural and Moral History of the Indies („Historia natural y moral de las Indias” in original) from 1590, priest Jose de Acosta wrote what he had learned from the indigenous peoples about their beginnings: „They are primarily speaking about a deluge that occurred in their country (…) The Indians say that everyone drowned in the deluge and tell how a certain Viracocha appeared from Lake Titicaca, who stayed at Tiahuanaco, where to this day one can see the ruins of very old and very strange buildings, and from there he went to Cuzco and thus began mankind to multiply„. A legend from the Cuzco region says that: „for an unspoken sin, the people who lived in the earliest times were destroyed by their creator… through a deluge. After this deluge, the creator incarnated himself in human form in Lake Titicaca. Then he made the Sun and the Moon and the stars. After that, he renewed the human population of the Earth„. Brother Cristobal de Molina wrote in Relation of the Fables and Rites of the Incas („Relacion de las fabulas y ritos de los Yngas”) from 1575 that the Deluge killed all people: „no creature survived except for a man and a woman who remained hidden in a box. And when the waters receded, the wind carried them to Tiahuanaco, where the creator began to rebuild the humans and the peoples of that region„. A myth presented by Douglas Gifford and John Sibbick in Warriors, Gods and Spirits from South American Mythology (1983) explains why Viracocha flooded the world: „The Great Creator God Viracocha decided to make a world in which people could live. First, he made the Earth and the sky. Then he began to make people who could live on Earth, carving figures of giants out of stone to whom he gave life. At first, everything went well, but after a while, the giants began to fight among themselves and refused to work anymore. Viracocha decided that he had to destroy them. He turned some of them back into stone (…) and brought the others to their knees with a great deluge„.
In Folklore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law (1918), Sir James George Frazer recorded a story from Peru, which speaks of a man warned by a llama of a deluge. The man and the llama fled together to the Vilca-Coto mountain, where they found all sorts of birds and animals taking refuge. The sea covered all the fields and mountains, except for the top of Vilca-Coto. After five days the waters receded and the sea returned to its bed. All people drowned in that deluge, except for the one who fled to the mountain, the ancestor of all peoples in the world.
According to Aztec mythology, only two people survived the Deluge: Coxcoxtli and his wife, Xochiquetzal, who were warned by a god of the coming cataclysm. They escaped in a huge ship, which they built according to the god’s instructions. The ship landed on the top of a high mountain. The two settled there and had many children who remained mute until a dove endowed them with the gift of speech. However, their languages were so different that they could not understand each other.
For the Mechoacanesec people of Central America, the god Tezcatilpoca decided to destroy all humanity with a deluge, sparing only Tezpi, who boarded a spacious boat with his wife and children, as well as a multitude of animals and birds, and supplies of seeds and seedlings. The boat stopped on the top of a mountain that emerged from the water, after Tezcatilpoca commanded the floodwaters to recede. Wanting to know if it was safe to disembark, Tezpi released an eagle which, still feeding on the corpses that filled the earth, never returned. Then he sent other birds, of which only the hummingbird returned, with a branch in its beak. Seeing in this sign that the Earth had begun to renew itself, Tezpi and his family left the boat and repopulated the world.
The Chibcha people of central Colombia say that they initially lived a savage life without laws, agriculture or religion. One day, an old man from another tribe, named Bochica, with a long and thick beard, came to them. He taught them how to build their huts and how to live together. After some time, his wife, Chia, came, who was very beautiful but wicked, enjoying thwarting her husband’s altruistic efforts. As she could not directly confront his power, Chia used magical means to cause a great deluge, in which most of the population died. Bochica was very angry and banished Chia to the sky, where she became the Moon. Then, Bochica caused the waters of the Deluge to dissipate, brought down the survivors from the mountains where they had taken refuge, gave them laws, taught them to cultivate the land and established the cult of the Sun, with periodic holidays, sacrifices and pilgrimages. Then he divided the power to govern between two chiefs and spent the rest of his life as an ascetic, living in contemplation. When he ascended to heaven, Bochica became a god.
The Canari people of Ecuador relate the story of a deluge from which two brothers escaped by climbing to the top of a high mountain. As the waters rose, the mountain rose higher, so the brothers survived the disaster.
In Chile, the Araucanian people from the pre-Columbian period remember a tradition that once a deluge occurred, from which very few natives survived, taking refuge on the high mountain Thegtheg („Thunderer” or „Sparkler”), which had three peaks and the capacity to float on water (according to James George Frazer in Folklore in the Old Testament: Studies in Comparative Religion, Legend and Law). They say that „the deluge was the result of volcanic eruptions accompanied by violent earthquakes„.
According to John Bierhorst’s book The Mythology of South America, a legend of the Yamana people of Tierra del Fuego states that during the great turmoil, the moon-woman became filled with hatred towards people and caused the Deluge. Everyone drowned, except for the few who managed to take refuge on the five mountain peaks not covered by water. The Pehuenche tribe from the same Tierra del Fuego associates the Deluge with a prolonged period of darkness: „The Sun and Moon fell from the sky and the world remained without light until, finally, two giant condors brought the Sun and Moon back to the sky„.
In a legend of the Luiseno people from Southern California, a deluge covered the mountains and killed most of the mankind. Only a few escaped, fleeing to the highest peaks. Similar myths have been recorded further north, among the Huron people. Also, a legend of a tribe from the Algonquin family recounted how the Great Hare, named Michabo or Messou, remade the world after the Deluge with the help of a raven, an otter and a muskrat. In the 19th century, James William Lynd recounted in History of the Dakotas a myth of the Iroquois tribe, which said that „the sea and the waters once flooded the Earth, so that all human life was extinguished„. The Chickasaw tribe believed that the world had been destroyed by water, „but that one family and two animals of every kind were saved„. The Sioux people also spoke of a time when there was no dry land and all the people had disappeared from the world. According to World Mythology, Hopi myths claim that „the first world was destroyed, as punishment for the wickedness of the people, by an all-consuming fire that came from above and below. The second world ended when the Earth’s globe was overturned and everything was covered in ice. The third world ended with a universal deluge. The present world is the fourth. Its fate will depend on the behavior of its inhabitants, whether or not it is in accordance with the plans of the Creator„.
Among the Inuits of Alaska there is a tradition of a terrible deluge accompanied by an earthquake that swept the face of the Earth so quickly that only a few people managed to escape in canoes or take refuge on the tops of the highest mountains.
Such an event, encountered all over the world, cannot be a figment of our ancestors’ imagination. Especially considering that evidence has been found to support the truthfulness of these myths. In 1968, archaeologist J. Manson Valentine found the ruins of a city three to five meters below the water level on the coast of North Bimini Island in the Bahamas. In 1987, in the waters near Yonaguni Island in Japan, tour guide Kihachiro Aratake discovered at 18 meters below the ocean surface a giant complex of stone structures, in the form of a pyramid without a peak, the size of two football fields. Also here there is a giant stone head. In the year 2000, an expedition led by Paulina Zelitsky discovered, on the western coast of Cuba, at a depth of 670 meters underwater, the ruins of a huge city that included megalithic buildings, temples and pyramids. Also in 2000, in August, a team of Italian researchers found, at a depth of 30 meters underwater in Lake Titicaca in the Andes Mountains, traces of a paved road, a stone terrace, an 800-meter-long wall and a carved stone head. These may be the ruins of the city of Wanaku, as told in local legends. Another strange aspect related to Lake Titicaca is the existence of a species of seahorse that normally lives only in saltwater, that is seas and oceans. In the same year, in September, on the Turkish coast of the Black Sea, marine archaeologist Robert Ballard discovered a farm at a depth of approximately 110 meters below sea level. In 2001, researchers from the Oceanic Institute in India found, on the floor of Khambhat Bay, several kilometers from the shore, an immense network of stone buildings, stretching over an area of eight square kilometers, which form two cities; thousands of artifacts were recovered, some dating back around 32,000 years. About 320 kilometers northwest of Khambhat Bay, the legendary city of Dwarka, which myths say it was the residence of the god Krishna, was found underwater. In the Mediterranean Sea there are almost 200 submerged cities; Robert Ballard and other scientists have speculated that the rise of the global sea level caused the Mediterranean Sea to overflow a natural barrier, causing a flood that submerged over 150,000 square kilometers of land at a depth of over 150 meters. Also, Sir Leonard Woolley recounted in his book, Excavations at Ur (1954), that in 1929, as work on the Royal Cemetery in Ur was nearing completion, traces of a much older civilization were discovered more than three meters below the hardened mud. Similar traces, hidden under layers of mud, have been found in the cities of Uruk, Kish, Shuruppak (the city of the Sumerian hero of the Deluge) and Nineveh, where archaeologists discovered no less than 13 layers of mud and river sand at a depth of 18 meters. The only plausible explanation for these civilizations buried under meters of sand and mud is that a great deluge did indeed occur in the past.
If the Deluge actually happened, as the legends from all around the world and archaeological discoveries suggest, what caused it? The most accepted version by the majority of researchers is that the Deluge coincides with the end of the last ice age, which is assumed to have occurred between 70,000 – 10,000 BC. As we have seen, people have recorded the ice age in their myths, before the Deluge. However, did the global flood actually occur at the end of the ice age, about 12,000 years ago? Most researchers strongly support this idea, but no matter how fervently it is argued, this hypothesis has no logical basis. Scientists tell us that global warming at the end of the glaciation occurred gradually over many millennia. A gradual warming would in no way be able to cause a rapid melting of snow and ice, that would lead to massive floods. Over several millennia, the water would have had more than enough time to evaporate and be absorbed by the Earth’s crust. The only plausible version is that a rapid melting of ice and snow, which would have led to a massive deluge, could only have been caused by a rapid climate warming. Scientists claim that there was indeed such a sudden global warming about 30,000 years ago. Therefore, that is the only time when the Deluge could have occurred.
The Sumerian King List, compiled in the 2nd millennium BC based on lists of kings discovered in Larsa and Nippur, divides the kings of the Sumerian cities into two groups: those who reigned before the Deluge and those who ruled after. According to this list, before the great deluge, ten kings reigned in five cities, their reigns totaling 432,000 years. „Then the Flood swept over. After the Flood had swept over and kingship had descended from heaven, Kish became the seat of kingship„. In Kish, 33 kings reigned for 27,805 years, 3 months, 3 days and 12 hours. In Uruk, there were 15 kings who reigned for 2,497 years. Ur was ruled for 293 years by five kings. Adab had only one king, who reigned for 90 years. In Avan, a single dynasty of three kings ruled for 356 years. Similarly, in Hamad, a single king reigned for 360 years. There were six kings in Mari, who occupied the throne for 136 years. The longest reign is that of Kish, where 33 kings ruled after the Deluge for more than 27,805 years. If this list was made around 2000 – 1500 BC, it means that the first king of Kish after the Deluge ascended the throne around 29,800 – 29,300 BC. Therefore, the Great Deluge occurred before this period.
In ancient Egypt, priests believed that god Ptah had arrived in their country long ago to raise the land from under the waters. After he finished, he was crowned king. From this legend we can only understand that the land of Egypt was submerged during the Deluge and Ptah arrived sometime after that event. Several lists of divine rulers, gods and demigods who ruled the country before humans, have been discovered in Egypt. Although the dates differ, most of them begin with the reign of Ptah, who raised the Egypt from under the waters. The Turin Papyrus states that the gods ruled for 23,200 years, the venerable Shemsu-Hor (Horus’ soldiers during the great war against Seth) ruled for 13,420 years, for a total of 36,620 years. In Eusebius’ Chronicle, the priest Manethon claims that the gods ruled Egypt for 13,900 years, the demigods for 1,255 years, few kings for 1,817 years, 30 kings for 1,790 years, another ten kings for 350 years and the Spirits of the Dead (probably the same Shemsu-Hor) for 5,813 years. In total, 24,925 years. In the first century BC, Greek historian Diodorus Siculus wrote that, according to the Egyptian priests, the gods and demigods ruled Egypt before humans for 18,000 years. Jewish historian Flavius Josephus claimed that two dynasties of gods ruled Egypt before the pharaohs for 13,870 years, and one of demigods for 3,650 years, followed by a transitional one for 350 years. In total, 17,870 years. If Ptah ruled Egypt after the Deluge 20,000 – 38,000 years ago, the Deluge could not have occurred 12 millennia ago, but before Ptah’s reign, approximately 30 millennia ago.
Homo neanderthalensis, a species that emerged suddenly 150,000 years ago after an evolutionary hiatus of over 250,000 years, and disappeared 30 – 35 millennia ago, represents one of the great mysteries of science. As Romanian writer Dan Apostol remarked in Survivors of the Quaternary (2003), „the sudden and apparently complete disappearance from Europe, Africa and even part of Asia of Homo neanderthalensis constitutes one of the great enigmas of prehistory„. The Neanderthals reached their evolutionary apex at the end of the ice age and disappeared „without any apparent reason, just as the climate had considerably warmed, greatly easing the struggle for survival„. Sumerian and Egyptian evidence dates the Deluge around 30,000 BC, during the sudden global warming from the middle of the ice age. The disappearance without a trace of Homo neanderthalensis during that period can only give us one satisfactory answer: Neanderthals vanished because of the Deluge, a fact confirmed by world myths which claims that all beings on Earth died in this catastrophe. It should be noted that the Neanderthals disappeared first from Europe and Africa, with only those in Asia surviving until the Deluge, as Ramayana claims that they were all gathered there for the war in Lanka against Ravana (Marduk).
To find out what caused the rapid global warming that led to the Deluge, we must first understand the reasons for the onset of the ice age. Unfortunately, scientists are unable to provide a satisfactory answer in this regard. All we know (or, more precisely, assume) is that from time to time, the climate cools down considerably for unknown reasons. After a certain period of time, the climate warms up again, probably for the same unknown reasons. If scientists cannot provide these answers, we are left to discover them ourselves. Common sense suggests that a considerable cooling of the Earth’s climate can only be caused by the absence of solar heat and light. And this could only happen in two cases: if the Sun moved away from the Earth or if our planet moved away from the Sun. But as far as we know, planets and stars do not change their orbits for no reason, only to return to them later. Therefore, neither of these options can be satisfactory. However, there is a third option, which will never be accepted by scholars, even though it is the most logical: something prevented the Sun’s rays from reaching the Earth. This „something” would have to be huge, probably the size of a planetoid, and move at the same time as our planet, so that it is always placed between the Earth and the Sun. But we do not know of any celestial body that has the ability to modify its trajectory, to come between the Earth and the Sun, to maintain that position for tens of thousands of years and then to return from where it came. Any rational being will say that no celestial body can do these things. And we could agree without blinking if there were not such a body even closer to us than we would expect…
The Moon is the only natural satellite of Earth, having 8.67% of our planet’s diameter, but only 1/7 of its density. Its scientific name, Luna, comes from the Roman goddess Diana (Artemis for the Greeks), who was also known as Luna. It is devoid of atmosphere and meteorological phenomena and we are taught in school that there is no life on the Moon. However, on 4th December 1996 the discovery of a mass of ice at the lunar south pole, covering an area of 5500 km2, and on 5th March 1998 the discovery of 330 million tons of water at both poles were announced. And where there is water, theoretically there is life…
According to the Japanese chronicle Nihongi, on the seventh day of the second month of spring in the year 640, a star entered the Moon. The event repeated on the ninth day of the seventh month of the year 642. The first report of a UFO seen through a telescope comes from the Puritan pastor Cotton Mather, who noticed a strange object near the Moon. In 1668, 1783 and 1787, French, English and German astronomers observed strange bright spots moving above the dark part of the lunar disk. In 1794, the Royal Society of Sciences in London received a scientific communication from astronomer Wilkins about the appearance of a bright object on the surface of the Moon. In 1874, Professor Schafarik from the Astronomical Observatory in Prague noted that a bright white disc crossed the surface of the Moon, remaining visible for a long time, then the lights suddenly disappeared. In 1950, astronomer Harold P. Wilkins saw an oval-shaped bright form, 150 – 200 meters long, moving above the lunar crater Aristarchus. In 1958, astronomer Nikolai Kozirev also observed repeated bright emissions in the same location. In 1963, the Lowell Observatory reported two red spots on the southern edge of the lunar crater Aristarchus. In 1969, repeated observations by the Dutch National Observatory Qudenbosch and the Apollo 11 mission crew confirmed the existence of „lights of unknown origin” in the same lunar crater. In July 1965, a beam of white light was reported several times on the Moon, lasting a second and a half.
In The Silence of the Idols (2004), Romanian doctor Cristian Negureanu mentioned that there are lunar craters that usually change color, sometimes suddenly. The Linné crater sometimes disappears and reappears, other times it changes its size and shape, being smaller or larger, more round or irregular, casting a gray or orange shadow. In 1869, the great lunar crater Linné, located in the Sea of Serenity, disappeared without a trace. Then, strange lights, with the most curious shapes (circle, triangle, cross or ellipse) and variable intensities, appeared in the Sea of Crises. For three years, the Royal Astronomical Society of London studied this lunar region daily, making over 2,000 observations of strange phenomena. Starting in 1915, numerous astronomers observed that many lunar craters had appeared with gigantic straight or curved walls, which remained there for several years before disappearing without a trace.
In 1958, amateur astronomer John O’Neill photographed a structure on the Moon in the Sea of Crises that resembled the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia, measuring 18 kilometers in length. The structure was also observed by two other renowned astronomers, Professor Patrick Moore and Dr. Hugh Percy Wilkins, the latter stating that „it is truly a bridge. The structure appears to be artificial and is what we call on Earth a work of art„. NASA released photographs of the „sculpted rock” at the edge of the lunar crater Fra Mauro, resembling the Sphinx in the Bucegi Mountains, and of the two mountain peaks 35 and 50 kilometers in height, whose shape inspired the names „Child” and „Skull„. The Apollo 15 crew, exploring the lunar surface with a Lunar Roving Vehicle in the Hadley-Apenine region, observed parallel tracks imprinted in the lunar dust, as if a vehicle had passed through before them. Chinese astrophysicist Mao-Kang claimed that the Americans „had hidden from the public, for twenty years, photographs of footprints on the lunar soil of a barefoot human, as well as those of a human skeleton„. It seems that the Apollo mission astronauts also filmed and photographed a base on the Moon (which has domes, tall and round structures resembling silos), huge T shaped vehicles and small or extremely large spacecraft. All of these were anonymously revealed by an astronaut on the British TV program Scientific Report. The astronaut added that „there are areas with vegetation and seasons on the Moon, as well as artificial lakes, it has a gravitational field and humans can walk on its surface without a spacesuit, breathing only through an oxygen tube„.
In 1978, Maurice Chatelain, former head of NASA’s Communications System and designer of the data processing and communication systems for the Apollo missions, wrote in a book that during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Neil Armstrong reported observing two UFOs on the edge of the lunar crater. A former NASA employee, Otto Binder, confirmed the story. In the early 1990s, Professor Vladimir Ajaja, Professor Alexandr Kazantsev and Dr. Sergei Bojic of Moscow University declared that Soviet espionage had monitored the details of the lunar landing by radio, recording Armstrong’s conversation with Mission Control in Houston, which revealed that two large UFOs had been seen near the lunar module.
It is reported that the astronauts of the Apollo 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 missions returned with several hundred photographs depicting UFOs. Referring to such flying objects observed near the Moon, astronaut Roland Evans from Apollo 17 exclaimed: „there are so many, they swarm like bees in a hive!„. In 1970, the goal of the Apollo 13 mission was to cause nuclear explosions on the surface of the Moon. However, on 13th April, an explosion of a liquid oxygen tank damaged the electrical system and engines. The spacecraft pilot then transmitted: „Hey! It’s over! They, they have killed the engine element!„. We do not know who „they” were, but we do know that the Apollo missions abruptly stopped in 1972. The Russians also did not attempt to send a crew to the Moon. It is rumored that the beings with a base on the Moon have forbidden humans from approaching, although the most likely reason is the Van Allen radiation belt, which prevents the passage of any living organism. Nobel laureate Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg even believed that the Moon has been occupied since ancient times and is used as a relay. In-depth tests conducted in 1986 showed that lunar soil contains large quantities of helium-3, a powerful, non-polluting and non-radioactive fuel. Could this be the fuel used by the gods’ UFOs?
The general opinion of scientists was that the Moon broke away from our planet billions of years ago. However, in 1974, NASA announced the bringing back of a rock from the Moon estimated to be 5.3 billion years old, a large lunar sample estimated to be 7 billion years old and two samples that are 20 billion years old. Therefore, the Moon is much older than Earth, which means it could not have broken away from it. This enormous age proves its origin from the center of the Universe, where the first galaxies formed, according to the official hypothesis of cosmology. But the Moon could not have arrived on its own in a peripheral solar system of a peripheral galaxy to be a planet’s satellite. If it was somehow brought here, how could anyone or anything transport such a celestial body through the Universe, assuming the cosmologists’ version is true?
In 1969, the Apollo 12 crew was followed all the way to the Moon by two UFOs. Upon reaching their destination, the command module was intentionally crashed. After a loud noise like that of a huge bell, vibrations lasting between 55 minutes and four hours followed. Super-thermal ion detectors recorded a steam vapor eruption over an area of 160 square kilometers for 14 hours. Following this incident, NASA declared that the Moon is apparently hollow inside. In July 1970, two Soviet academics published in Sputnik the hypothesis that the Moon has an outer shield 32 kilometers thick (made of titanium, chromium, zirconium and yttrium, which are rare on Earth), a viscous layer of lava (4.8 kilometers thick), another shield at a depth of 11.2 kilometers and an interior with a diameter of 3318 kilometers, where there is water and air. Romanian Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Doru Davidovici claimed in Galactic Worlds (1986) that „the Moon is the biggest UFO„, mentioning the arguments put forth by former Soviet academics Mihail Vasin and Alexandr Scerbakov, as well as Dr. Gordon McDonald, a senior researcher at NASA, who concluded that the Moon is hollow inside.
If the Moon is an artificial satellite of the Earth, a kind of giant UFO, it would explain why it always rotates with the same side facing us, which is highly unusual for a natural celestial body. But also its appearance near our planet, from a great distance. In addition, we understand why Enki, associated with the night, had as symbols the planet Venus and the Moon, while Enlil was associated with a single celestial body, the Sun. If Enlil was matched with the day star, Enki became for the ancients associated with the brightest „star” of the night, the planet Venus or the Morning Star. Later, the Moon appeared, becoming the brightest celestial body in the night sky. Therefore, Enki was associated with it, us inheriting from our ancestors both versions, Enki being matched with both Venus and the Moon.
If indeed the Moon was brought here at a time when humans already existed, we should find this event recorded in the collective memory of mankind. And indeed, we do. The Roman poet Ovid mentioned in his writings that, in the Arcadian era, the sky was devoid of the Moon. A legend from the Andes says that the god Viracocha created the Sun, the Moon and the stars after the Deluge. The Chibcha people from central Colombia believe that, because she caused the Deluge, Chia was exiled by her husband to the sky, where she became the Moon. No one believes that a woman was transformed into the Moon, but we can understand from this myth that the „natural” satellite of the Earth did not exist before the Deluge.
Chapter 9 of the biblical Genesis states that, after the Deluge, the supreme god regretted destroying humans. Therefore, he placed a sign in the sky, the rainbow, as a covenant between him and mortals. Chapter 55 of the Book of Enoch makes a similar claim: „And after that the Head of Days repented and said: ‘In vain have I destroyed all who dwell on the earth’. And he sware by his great name: ‘Henceforth I will not do so to all who dwell on the earth, and I will set a sign in the heaven: and this shall be a pledge of good faith between me and them for ever, so long as heaven is above the earth. And this is in accordance with my command„. It seems unlikely that the first rainbow emerged only after the Deluge, considering it is an optical and meteorological phenomenon, a spectrum in the form of a colored arc formed by sunlight refracted in water droplets in the atmosphere. The Book of Enoch does not specify anything about the rainbow, but only refers to it as „a sign in the heaven„. Is it possible that that „sign” could be the Moon?
If the gods brought the Moon to prevent the Sun’s light and heat from reaching the Earth, they could have created an ice age. This „blockage” could represent a total solar eclipse that caused not only total darkness but also the inclination of the Earth’s axis, which scientists still cannot explain, although they claim that without lunar attraction, the inclination of the Earth would not exist. Surprisingly, the Hopi people of Arizona prove to have more wisdom, claiming that „the second world ended when the Earth globe overturned on its axis and everything was covered in ice„. Scientists also say that without the inclination of the Earth’s axis there would be no seasons, and we would always have a tropical climate. Our ancestors have left us enough references to a warm, sometimes even tropical climate, throughout the Earth. Among them are the maps of Oronteus Finaeus from 1531, of Gerard Kremer (also known as Mercator) from 1569 and of the Frenchman Philippe Buache from 1737, which show Antarctica without ice. We do not know who made these maps or when, but it is certain that people existed when the southernmost continent had a warm climate and was not covered in ice.
A map compiled by the Turk Haci Ahmet in 1559 shows a strip of land about 1600 kilometers wide that connects Alaska to Siberia. Geologists believe that such a „land bridge” did exist where the Bering Strait is today, but it was swallowed by water at the end of the last ice age. And this map proves that humans existed when the north of the Earth was devoid of ice, having a much warmer climate.
It has been discovered that in the Lower Paleolithic period, giraffes, elephants and rhinoceroses lived in present-day Romania, animals that only exist today in Africa. Greek historian Herodotus wrote that „only in these lands lions are born in Europe„. In the Mesolithic period the vegetation was very abundant, even lush in the Iron Gates area (a gorge on the Danube river, part of the boundary between Romania and Serbia). There is evidence that in Romania, in the last million years, there has been a permanent temperate climate with tropical periods of warming.
The Zoroastrian scriptures of the Persians say that Airyana Vaejo, the home of the Aryan race, had a mild and productive climate before Angra Mainyu brought the cold. A „meeting” between the Sun and Moon, before the Deluge, is also recounted in an African myth from the lower course of the Congo River, which states that „long ago, the Sun met the Moon and threw mud at it, making it less bright. When this meeting happened, a great flood occurred„. Also, the Tarahumara people from northern Mexico have legends of the world’s destruction based on a change in the path of the Sun. Could this „change” in the path of the Sun be the appearance of the Moon?
The appearance of a new celestial body in our solar system would have had some influence on the other planets. Surprisingly or not, the ancients have left us clues about this event. An old Chinese work, which was said to contain „all knowledge„, made of 4,320 volumes, states that before the Deluge, „the planets changed their trajectories. The sky lowered more towards the north. The Sun, Moon and stars changed their movements„. The Norwegian myth of the Deluge claim that, before this catastrophe, „the stars had gone mad in the sky, falling into the open hole„. Ibrahim B. Wasif Sah al-Katib wrote in News about Egypt and its Wonders that in the dream that predicted the global flood to King Saurid, „the stars were falling, striking against each other, making a deafening noise„. In Bundahish, when Angra Mainyu sent „the devastating and merciless frost„, he also „attacked and disturbed the sky„, this assault giving him the possibility to control „a third of the sky, filling it with darkness„; at the same time, the planets rebelled against the sky, causing chaos throughout the Cosmos. Also, the Cahto people from California simply say that „the sky fell„.
If the Moon was created to prevent the Sun’s light from reaching the Earth, this total eclipse would have represented a long period of darkness. Which is mentioned in the myths of many peoples. The disappearance of the Sun was not something ordinary and the people of those times tried to explain this phenomenon in the most colorful ways. For example:
In The Mythology of South America, John Bierhorst wrote that the Pehuenche tribe from Tierra del Fuego associates the Deluge with a prolonged period of darkness: „The Sun and Moon fell from the sky and the world was left without light, until finally two giant condors brought the Sun and Moon back to the sky„.
The Toba people from the Gran Chaco region of South America say that the great freeze was accompanied by deep darkness. One of the elders of the Toba people declared that „during the prolonged darkness, the Sun disappeared altogether and people died of hunger. When their provisions ran out, they began to eat their children. In the end, they all died„, except for the semi-divine Asin and those to whom he offered fire.
The Mayan Popol Vuh states that „the face of the Earth was darkened” at a time when „the Sun and Moon had covered their faces„. Other Maya sources claim that the event occurred „in the time of the ancients. The Earth was darkened (…) It so happened that the Sun was still bright and clear. Then, at noon, it became dark„.
For the peoples of the Andes mountains, before the arrival of the god Viracocha, the Earth had been thrown into darkness due to the disappearance of the Sun. „Mankind lived in disorder; many walked naked, like savages; they had no homes or other dwellings except caves, from where they went out and gathered whatever food they found nearby„. After the Deluge, Viracocha changed all these things, offering people the techniques and knowledge needed for a civilized and productive life. In a legend recorded by Blas Valera in the 16th century, the first Inca monarch, Manco Capac, was the son of the Sun. When his mother was in labor, darkness fell upon the world. The Sun appeared in the sky again only after Manco Capac was born. After visiting the city of Cholula in 1585, the monk Diego de Duran noted in Ancient History of the New Spain („Historia antiqua de la Nueve España” in original) what he had learned from a venerable old man, who was said to be over 100 years old: „At first, this place was in darkness„; later, „some deformed giants came, who took possession of the Earth„.
Montesinos said that during the reign of the twelfth Inca king, the god Illa Tici Vira Cocha destroyed the giants, then hid the Sun for a short time: „for twenty hours there was no Sun„. After prayers and sacrifices, the day star reappeared and the king reintroduced the old laws and rituals of worship.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the immortal Utnapishtim tells the story of how „a wave of despair rose to the sky when the god of storm (Enlil) turned daylight into darkness, when he smashed the land like a pot„.
In Bundahish, when Angra Mainyu sent the „devastating and merciless frost„, he ruled „the third part of the sky, filling it with darkness„.
A Norwegian myth tells that before the Deluge, a young wolf chased the Sun to take control of it. The Sun was eventually caught and „its shining rays went out one by one. It turned red, like blood, and then disappeared altogether. As a result, the world was covered in a terrible winter. Snowstorms descended from all corners of the horizon„.
In ancient Egypt it was believed that during the battle between Seth and Horus, the sun-god Ra refused to come out of his chamber, leaving the world in darkness. His daughter, Hathor, convinced him to change his mind by dancing naked in front of him and tickling him. The same myth is found in Japan, where Amaterasu, the goddess of the Sun, withdrew into a heavenly cave, annoyed by her brother, Susanoo. Since the world was plunged into darkness, the gods tried to convince Amaterasu to take her place in the sky again. The only one who succeeded was the goddess Ame-no-Uzume, who cheered up Amaterasu with a fun and obscene dance, during which she completely undressed. In Greco-Roman myths, before the Deluge, Phaeton, the son of Titan Helios (the personification of the Sun), stole the sun chariot. But he couldn’t control the horses, so the Sun „rushed down in anger like a meteor„. To prevent a planetary disaster, Zeus killed Phaeton with a lightning bolt. Overwhelmed with grief, Helios refused to ride his chariot in the sky. Eventually he was convinced by the gods to take his place again so as not to leave the world in darkness. In Meteora, Aristotle wrote that „stars fell from the sky during the fall of Phaeton„.
Who created the Moon to cause an ice age? Our ancestors say it was the gods. If they are responsible for this, what would be their reason? Myths suggest that the „great freeze„, the appearance of the Moon, the disappearance of the Sun and the Deluge occurred during the second great war of the gods, called Ragnarok by Scandinavians or Gigantomachy by Greeks. Marduk’s army was superior to Enlil’s, myths revealing that the young god won the first battles. Unlike the first war of the gods, lost by Enki due to his numerical inferiority, Marduk now had the Watchers, demigods and humans under his command, their high number giving him a significant advantage over his uncle. Losing battle after battle, Enlil saw himself on the brink of total defeat. The only solution for victory was to reduce the enemy army. As this couldn’t be achieved through fair combat, Enlil resorted to alternative solutions. The first was creating the ice age by bringing the Moon and placing it between Earth and Sun. Since the „great cold” didn’t seem to have visible effects, Enlil sent viruses to earthlings, those „diseases, epidemics, plagues and cholera” from the Atra-Hasis Epic, but only humans were affected, not the demigods and Watchers. Neither cold, nor famine, nor viruses affected the Watchers or their children and humans continued to multiply, so Enlil resorted to the final solution: drowning everyone in a global flood. If the Atra-Hasis Epic stated that the god was dissatisfied with human multiplication, it didn’t mean he was bothered by the noise they made during sexual acts, but by their increase in number. Specifically, the increase of Marduk’s army. Therefore, his series of punishments towards Earth only aimed to destroy the enemy’s army. We suspect it wasn’t easy for him to make this decision, but usually there are no rules during war. The celestial emperor Anu accepted Enlil’s proposal and approved the Deluge’s onset. This was achieved by removing the Moon from the Sun’s path, which led to the abrupt global warming in the middle of the ice age, about 30 – 35 millennia ago. Enki was obliged to swear not to reveal this „secret of the gods”, but the god of wisdom couldn’t help finding a subterfuge.
The oath prevented him from sharing the secret with humans, but not with an object. Thus, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Enki informed Utnapishtim of the Deluge’s arrival through a dream. However, not directly, but by speaking to the walls of his house: „House of reeds, house of reeds! Wall, O wall, listen, house of reeds, wall, ponder! O man of Shuruppak, son of Ubara-Tutu, tear down your house and build a boat; abandon your possessions and save your life. Despise worldly goods and save yourself with your own life. Tear down your house and build a boat. Here are the boat’s dimensions, as you must build it: its length must be the same as its width. Cover its roof like the vault that covers the abyss, then take seed from all living things into the boat„. Asked by Utnapishtim what he should tell the people who see him building the huge ship, Enki replied: „Tell them the following: I have heard that Enlil is angry with me and I no longer dare to walk in this land or live in this city; I will descend to the harbor of the sea to live with my lord. But over us will pour a rain of wealth: large fish, birds from the sky and all kinds of sea creatures. In the evening, the Storm Cloud Rider will bring wheat in torrents!„. The last phrases underline that period of famine during the ice age, also mentioned in other legends. To break the „curse of the Earth” and receive food, the people of Shuruppak even helped Utnapishtim build his ship.
The Atra-Hasis Epic describes the same event in an identical way. Enki called his devoted servant, Atra-Hasis, and had him stand behind a reed shield. Then, pretending to speak to the shield, he said:
„Reed shield,
Pay attention to what I say.
All the houses of men and all the cities
Will be swept away by a great storm.
The seed of man will then disappear…
This is the final law,
The word of the Assembly of the Gods,
The word spoken by Anu, Enlil and Ninhursag.„
Enki advised his faithful servant to build a ship. When Atra-Hasis said „But I have never built a ship before… draw me a plan on the ground so I can see how„, Enki offered precise instructions, dimensions and construction methods. For his curious neibourghs, Atra-Hasis used the excuse of building a „boat for Apsu” because he was going to Enki’s place to escape Enlil’s wrath, just like Utnapishtim.
After finishing his ark, Utnapishtim / Atra-Hasis embarked his relatives, all kinds of animals and many craftsmen. The moment when he himself had to board the ship was precise:
„When Shamash,
Who commands an earthquake at the setting of the Sun,
Rains down from the sky with eruptions,
Board the ship,
And seal the entry well.„
The sign that Utnapishtim had to wait for is the arrival of Marduk / Shamash, who seems to have launched a disastrous aerial attack against Enlil („rains down from the sky with eruptions„), similar to that described in the Ramayana („hundreds of meteors falling from the sky„), which shook the earth („commands an earthquake„). Marduk’s attack coincides with the beginning of the Deluge and represents the final battle of the second great war of the gods, recorded in many legends of the world. Moreover, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the beginning of the Deluge seems to describe a battle between the two rival groups of deities: „At the first glimmer of dawn (i.e. when the Moon had been moved out of the Sun’s way), a black cloud (Enlil’s shuttle) appeared in the sky, thundering where Adad, the Lord of the Storm (Enlil), rode on the clouds. Over hills and fields, the gods Shullat and Hanish, the heralds of the storm, guided it. Then the gods of the Underworld (the Watchers) arose. Nergal (Marduk) opened the floodgates of the waters from the Underworld, Ninurta, the Lord of War, opened the channels and the seven judges of the Underworld, the Anunnaki (the leaders of the Watchers), raised their torches, lighting up the whole country with their brilliant flame (launching weapons similar to missiles). A cry of despair rose to the heavens when the god of storm replaced the light of day with darkness (an identical description to that in Ramayana, where „a black disc covered the Sun” and „immediately, the day was replaced by total darkness„), when he shattered the whole land like a clay vessel. For a whole day, the hurricane raged with fury, sweeping over the world like the waves of an attacking army. No one could see their own brother, and there was no way to spot people from the sky„.
Before the Deluge, the Earth was subjected to fire due to the terrible weapons, most likely nuclear, used by the combatants. In Hesiod’s Theogony, „a great part of the vast Earth was scorched by terrible vapors, melting away like the glowing metal crafted by man„. In the Indian epic Ramayana, „spears, axes, and shields were swirling around. A thick and choking smoke engulfed the people and animals trying to go out on the streets„. The Hopi people say that „the first world was destroyed, as a punishment for the wickedness of humans, by an all-consuming fire that came from above and below„. In Norse mythology, „the giant Surtr set fire to the entire Earth; the Universe was nothing but an immense oven. Flames burst from the cracks in the rocks; the whistling of the vapors could be heard everywhere. All living things, all plants, were consumed. Only the naked soil remained, but like the sky itself, the Earth was nothing but cracks and abysses„, the poem Voluspa claiming that
„The fire is kindled,
With smoking whirlwinds.
Fiery floods are rushing
To strike the very sky.„
The floodwaters covered the Earth, extinguishing the flames and destroying most of Marduk’s army (who did not have shuttles, unlike the leaders of the Watchers), thus giving Enlil the advantage he sought: „all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (Genesis 7:11), „the wind blew, the torrent, the storm and the flood overwhelmed the world, disaster and torrents raged together like armies in battle” (The Epic of Gilgamesh), „all the rivers, all the seas swelled and overflowed. Everywhere, all the waves collided with waves. They rose and simmered slowly over everything” (New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology). The intensity of the Deluge, which brought the Apocalypse, „made the gods tremble„, as the Atra-Hasis Epic claims. And according to Ramayana, „the two armies thought that the end of the world had come. The shaking of the air caused them to fall. The Earth shook to its fiery core. Many stars fell from the sky„, a description from which we understand that the earthquake commanded by Shamash / Marduk proceeded according to plan. From their aerial vehicles, Enlil and Marduk continued the fight even on water, which the Egyptians remembered as a „boat” race, in which the two clashed with „harpoons„. The surviving gods fled from the inundation, the Atra-Hasis Epic claiming that „they turned their backs and climbed into the sky of Anu” aboard „rukub ilani” („the chariots of the gods” or the Hindu vimanas). In the Epic of Gilgamesh, „the gods themselves, frightened by the flood, took refuge in the highest places of the sky, the firmament of Anu. They huddled against the walls, crowded together like dogs. Finally, Ishtar, the Queen of Heaven (Ninhursag), with a sweet voice, began to scream like a woman in childbirth: ‘Woe to me, the dust has settled on the days of the past, for I have given a bad command. Why have I commanded this evil in the Council of the Gods? Wasn’t I the leader of the wars intended to destroy men, but aren’t they my children since I gave birth to them? Now they float on the ocean like the fish’. The great gods of heaven and hell wept, covering their mouths. For six days and six nights, the wind did not cease to blow, storms, hurricanes and floods overwhelmed the Earth. Violent gusts of wind and floods raged unleashed, like warriors attacking enemies„. The Atra-Hasis Epic describes the event in a similar way:
„The Anunnaki, the Great Gods,
Were suffering from hunger and thirst…
Ninti (Ninhursag) wept and suffered;
She wept to ease her great pain.
The gods wept with her for the Earth.
She was overwhelmed by the great pain,
And the cruel thirst was approaching her.
Where she stood, the gods wept,
Like sheep gathered together.
Their lips were parched from thirst
And their stomachs groaned from hunger.„
The mother goddess Ninhursag was shocked by the extent of the destruction:
„The goddess saw and wept…
Her lips were burning with fever…
‘Like flies are the creatures I made.
They fill the rivers, they are food for the fish,
They are all swallowed by the furious sea.’„
The goddess’ statement in the Epic of Gilgamesh provides additional details about the great war of the gods: „dust has settled on the days of the past, for I have given a bad command. Why have I commanded this evil in the Council of the Gods? Wasn’t I the leader of the wars intended to destroy men, but aren’t they my children since I gave birth to them?„. From this confession, we learn that although she was the mother of Marduk and the former consort of Enki, she fought alongside her second husband, Enlil, and their son, Ninurta. This moment is described in Egyptian myths: although she was initially on Horus / Marduk’s side, Isis / Ninhursag helped Seth / Enlil, which led to her son decapitating her. Historian Plutarch argued that this was not a true decapitation, as Horus actually removed his mother’s crown from her head. If Plutarch is right, Marduk disowned his mother for siding with Enlil. Likely to prove her loyalty for de Celestial side, she was sent, in the form of the lioness Sekhmet, to quell the rebellion of humans, almost causing the extinction of the human race. She was also Athena in Greek mythology, who fought alongside Zeus against Typhon, and Ishtar from the Hittite and Hurrian mythologies, who fought alongside Teshub in the war against Ullikummi. Thus, we understand the reason why, in the Atra-Hasis Epic and the Epic of Gilgamesh, she was on Anu and Enlil’s side when the destruction of humans by the Deluge was decided. During the global flood she realized that she had made the wrong choice, but it was too late. At least for humans.
The Babylonian poem Enuma Elish seems to describe two events in a single story. Although it may refer to the destruction of the proto-Earth in which Sophia was trapped by Enlil, whose body was the planet Jupiter, the poem also includes the story of the second great war of the gods, copying parts of the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Atra-Hasis Epic. Which is normal, considering that researchers have already established that Enuma Elish is an adaptation of a much older Sumerian myth. In the two epics, the noise of humans prevented Enlil from resting, so he decided to destroy them. Enuma Elish claims something similar: god Apsu could not sleep because of the noise of the young gods.
„All the brothers gathered together;
Running back and forth, they were ready to smash Tiamat.
In their crazy play among the stars,
They made Tiamat’s belly tremble.
Apsu could no longer tolerate their frolics;
Before them, even Tiamat was voiceless.
Their deeds were unbearable…
And their movements thoughtless.„
Apsu consulted with Mummu, his counselor, and decided to destroy the young gods. From this hidden story of the myth, it appears that Apsu is Enlil, his wife, Tiamat, is Ninhursag, and Mummu is Nusku, Enlil’s vizier. The poem asserts that „their secret counsel” was discovered by the great gods, who became frightened. The only one who did not lose his temper was Ea / Enki, who devised a plan for „sleep to fall upon Apsu„. When the other gods approved the plan, Enki „drew a straight line of heaven” and recited the divine spell, so that „sleep fell upon Apsu” and even „counselor Mummu could not move„. After he anesthetized Enlil / Apsu and Nusku / Mummu, Enki „took the tiara and removed his aura cloak„. This incident also appears in the Myth of Zu, where the bird Zu („Wisdom”), Enzu („Lord of Wisdom”) or Anzu („Wisdom of Heaven”) steals Enlil’s royal emblems, scepter and Tablets of Destiny. However, Tiamat did not remain idle:
„She raised up Kingu,
Made him supreme among them…
And the leadership of the battle,
She entrusted to his hands.„
In Sumer, beside Enlil was Ninurta, his and Ninhursag’s son, his right-hand man and heir (called Thor by Scandinavians or Ares by Greeks), while for the Hittites and Hurrians, Ishtar and Tasmisu stood by Teshub in the battle against Ullikummi. In the Myth of Zu, Ninurta is the one who fights with Zu to recover the Tablets of Destiny and his father’s royal emblems. Also, in Enuma Elish, Kingu, Tiamat’s son, takes command of the army, which we can only guess is the same as Ninurta. Frightened by Tiamat and her army led by Kingu, the gods (the Watchers) chose Marduk to save them: „He, who is proud and powerful, shall be the one to avenge us; He, brave as no one else in battle: Marduk, the Hero!„. Marduk accepted the mission, but on one condition:
„If I am to avenge you,
To save your lives, to slay the fearsome Tiamat,
Call the Assembly of the Gods and make me greater than all of you!„
Delighted that they did not have to face Tiamat, the gods decided: „Marduk shall be king!„. Then they sent their new leader to battle.
„Tiamat and Marduk, the wisest of the gods,
Were heading toward each other;
Closer and closer, to settle the battle,
They were now ready for the fight.„
After a fierce battle, Marduk defeated his opponent and cut her into pieces. He even decapitated her, just as Horus did to Isis in Egyptian mythology:
„With his heavenly weapon he cut off her head;
He cut the valleys through which her blood flowed;
He put it on the north wind to carry it away
And left it in an unknown place.„
After this victory, Marduk was declared the hero of the gods and kept his position as the leader of the Watchers. However, as we have seen, their true leader was Enki, with Marduk serving just as the supreme general of the army, a loyal son who always followed his father’s orders. We do not know whether the decapitation and resurrection of the Mother Goddess actually occurred or whether it was just a repudiation by her son, but it is certain that the end of the war finds her moving away from Earth, full of tears and regrets.
Left without most of his army, with humans and demigods dead in the waters that covered the Earth, Marduk was defeated, as the legends of the Greeks, Hittites, Scandinavians or Indians claim. „The Watcher of Purification„, „The Eternal Ruler” or „The One Glorified by Future Generations„, as the Babylonian priests called him, was forced to flee with his tail between his legs, alongside his father, Enki, his sister, Ishtar, and the surviving Watchers who had endured the long war. However, Enlil wanted to end the conflict once and for all, preparing his final blow.
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